She nodded, and he followed her inside.
Chapter18
They entered her apartment, and Lillian could feel her hands shaking. She tried to put her coat in the closet but knocked a case onto the floor.
"What’s this?” He was right behind her, picking it up off the floor.
"Nothing." She reached for it, but he lifted it away.
"Come on."
"It's my tin whistles."
"Your what?"
"Tin whistles." She took the case out and opened it, displaying three different whistles. "This is a D whistle, a C whistle, and a B and E flat whistle."
"Why are there three?"
"Because they are tuned to those keys." She started to fold the case back up.
"What are you doing? You must know how to play."
"I do. I started with the recorder and then moved on to this."
"Ahh, wasn’t it in Titanic? My Heart will go on, right?"
"Something like that." She’d stopped playing midway through her intern year.
"Play something for me." The air in the room had changed, almost as if it too was waiting in anticipation.
"Why?"
"Because I was horrible with the recorder, and I wanted to play the drums." His red lips smiled, and she felt his eyes running up and down her body.
"I thought it was fun. Do you know how hard it was to find someone to give me tin whistle lessons?"
Her first teacher had been some Celtic musician who had spent way too much time in the 70s stoned. But he'd taught her so much about feeling music.
"My parents worked really hard to have me stop taking drum lessons. Come on, play me something."
"In this?" She pointed to her black slip.
"I thought it was the most beautiful thing the first time I saw you, though I'll be happy if you just get naked." More staring, more heat, and yet they’d hadn’t touched yet.
She picked up the D whistle. "No laughing. It's been a long time. You're next."
"On the whistle? Or drum on your table because drums are great for 'name that tune'?"
"You will do it." She used her command voice.
"Only if you go first."
She thought for a second and began to play a haunting melody. The last she’d played it had been after the worst shift of her intern year before she’d packed the whistles away.
"I feel like I should know this one. It’s not Titanic?"
She ducked her head. "I was a little too young for Titanic. It's called Edge of the Night from the Lord of the Rings."
